author of what is considered the first narrative of an American ex-slave, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, published in 1825, with a second edition published in 1855. Grimes was born into slavery in King George County, Virginia, in 1784. His father was Benjamin Grymes, a wealthy plantation owner; Grimes' mother was a slave on a neighboring plantation. During his years of slavery, Grimes was owned by at least ten different masters, in the States of Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia. He worked as a house servant, valet, field worker, stable boy, and coachman. In 1814, at the age of 30, Grimes escaped from slavery by stowing away on a ship that sailed from Savannah, Georgia to New York City.Doct. Hawes, aforementioned, was present at the time I was whipped on account of the coffee, and advised my master not to whip me any more, as he said he thought I could not bear it much longer. He was my master's son in-law, and a member of Congress, and married my master's eldest daughter. He did not whip me any more at that time, after the advice of the Doctor. Oftentimes, my mistress would have me make the coffee in the dining room, before her. At such times, Patty had no opportunity for putting in the drugs, and the coffee was then good. I was satisfied in my own mind, that (as she was the overseer of the house, and her husband of the plantation, there being about ten or fifteen servants about the house, and no one of them allowed to interfere with this business in which I was employed) that it must be through her machinations which she employed to injure me, and get me severely flogged.I remained on the plantation about two years, under a black overseer, by the name of Voluntine, who punished me repeatedly, to make me perform more labour than the rest of the boys. My master then procured another overseer, a white man, by the name of Coleman Thead; he treated us somewhat better than old Voluntine, but he was very severe, flogged me severely several times, for almost nothing. The overseers have an unlimited controul over the slaves on the plantation, and exercise their authority in the most tyranical manner. I was one day at work on the plantation, with nothing on but my shirt, when the overseer, Thead, came to me, threatening to whip me, and caught hold of me for that purpose.

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